


Pinned Down

by SadinaSaphrite



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Claustrophobia, M/M, Major Character Injury, Near Death Experiences, Omnic Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 01:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17193740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadinaSaphrite/pseuds/SadinaSaphrite
Summary: Trapped together beneath the rubble of a collapsed building may not be the best time or place to confess his feelings for Jack, but the world coming to an end didn't leave Gabriel with may options.***My entry for "They Loved Each Other," an R76 Zine.





	Pinned Down

“Get down!”

Strong arms wrapped around Gabriel’s waist as Jack tackled him from behind, knocking them both to the ground. A rocket tore through the window in the space where Gabriel’s head had been only a moment earlier. It blasted through two support columns, buried itself in a wall, and exploded, sending a gust of heat and debris sweeping over them. Jack threw his arms up to protect Gabriel’s head and his body shielded him from the worst of it. Gabriel coughed as the dust settled, and he could feel Jack doing the same above him.

“Goddammit…” Gabriel spat out a mouthful of what used to be drywall. “Nice reflexes, Morrison.”

“Thanks, Commander.” 

Jack clambered off him and helped him to his feet. Dust clouded the lobby of the building they had taken shelter in, a place that looked like it might have been a bank before the Omnics went crazy and the world went to shit.

“You alright?”

“Yeah.” Jack half-heartedly brushed himself off, but it did little to remove the layer of white dust. “Body armor took most of the blast. I’m fine.” His lips quirked upward in that goddamn cheeky smile that never failed to make Gabriel’s knees weak. “What about you, Reyes? Still in one piece?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gabriel rolled his eyes and told his knees to get their act together. 

Goddammit. Now was neither the time nor the place to nurse his crush on Morrison. Maybe in another lifetime, he could have allowed himself to entertain the idea of flirting with the handsome man, with his chiseled jaw, powerful arms, and thick neck that begged for Gabriel to run his tongue along–

_No. None of that. Get your head back in the game, Gabe. Fraternizing while the world is ending is a really shitty idea._

Gabriel busied himself with checking his weapons for damage, trying to distract himself from his own thoughts. “What, you want a medal every time you save my life?”

“Yes.”

“Jackass.”

“Damn right.” Jack grinned at him with those goddamn sparkling blue eyes. Bastard.

“Nice try, Morrison,” Gabriel looked away from that heart-melting grin. “If I spent every—” 

The building groaned ominously above them. A beat passed in silence before Gabriel cuffed Jack hard on the shoulder. 

“East door! Run!”

The structure gave one final groan of protest before the support columns collapsed and it crumbled around them. Gabriel grabbed blindly for Jack, catching hold of his arm and pulling him close, just in time for two stories of abandoned, war-torn building to come tumbling down on their heads. He felt Jack’s arms wrap around him in return before his world went black.

  


* * *

  


Gabriel awoke to darkness, only a few dim rays of light filtering down through the rubble. He took a shaky breath and inhaled a lungful of dust, sending him into a coughing fit that made him intimately aware of sharp spikes of pain that stabbed through his chest with every cough. He groped for the LED light on his belt and flicked it on. Once his eyes had adjusted to the diffused white light, he found himself surrounded by rubble, chunks of concrete and drywall making up most of what he could see. He tried to lift himself up, only to discover his legs were firmly trapped below the knee, and something solid was pressing down across his shoulders, keeping him pinned flush against Jack.

_Jack._

Gabriel was lying face down on top of Jack, giving him a clear view of the blood staining his blond hair and running down his face, his eyes closed and laying very, very still.

_Oh, God._

“Morrison!” Gabriel grabbed his shoulders and gave him a shake. “Can you hear me? Wake up!”

Jack remained motionless beneath him for another heart-stopping second, Gabriel’s blood running cold before Jack finally took a deep, ragged breath and his eyes snapped open. His gaze briefly met Gabriel’s before darting to the debris beside them, above them, surrounding them. His eyes went wide with panic. Gabriel felt Jack tense against him an instant before he began to struggle. The rubble shifted threateningly, and Gabriel’s heart leapt into his throat.

“Morrison, stop!” He caught Jack’s head between his hands, forcing him to meet his gaze. “Morrison! _Jack!_ ”

Blue eyes locked onto his and Jack froze.

“Easy, Jack. I’ve got you,” he said soothingly. “Breathe for me, okay? Breathe. In and out. That’s it. Breathe.”

Jack took a few long, deep breaths, then finally made a dry swallow.

“You with me, Jack?”

“Y–yeah. Yeah, Reyes. Thanks.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I…” Jack took another deep breath, then looked slowly down at himself. 

Gabriel felt Jack slowly tense beneath him, starting with his arms and shoulders, slowly moving down his form as he evaluated himself. Jack gave a whole-body flinch as he got to his feet.

“My head hurts, but not bad. Right foot hurts like a bitch. Might be broken. I can’t seem to move either of my legs.”

“Yeah, I can’t move mine, either. Can you feel them?”

“Yeah,” Jack grimaced. “Unfortunately.”

“Would you rather you _couldn’t_ feel them?” Gabriel asked, arching an eyebrow.

“God, let me bitch about my broken foot in peace, you jackass,” Jack grumbled, but there was no heat in it. He craned his head to peer over Gabriel’s shoulder. “Looks like there’s a big pile of concrete pinning our legs. You’ve got a steel beam across your shoulders, but it seems to be what’s keeping the rest of the rubble from coming down on our heads.” Those sky-blue eyes, somehow brighter in the white LED light, flicked back to his. “What about you, Commander?”

Gabriel tore his eyes away from Jack’s and took a moment to evaluate himself the same way Jack had, slowly tensing and relaxing each muscle, assessing what worked and what didn’t, what felt normal and what hurt, all without disturbing the rubble above them. He was scraped and bruised, but that was hardly worth mentioning. The beam was digging uncomfortably into his shoulders, but nothing seemed exceptionally painful apart from the stab in his chest accompanying each breath. Like a proper idiot, he took a deep breath to be sure and winced when his chest predictably flared with pain.

“Gabe?”

“Broken ribs. Everything else is fine.”

Jack laid back and sighed. “Well, we’re alive. Now what?”

“We stay that way,” Gabriel tapped his communicator. “Captain Amari, do you read me?”

“Loud and clear, Commander,” Ana’s voice chirped in their earpieces. “What’s your status?”

“The bots dropped a building on us. Morrison and I are pinned down at my ping.”

“Literally,” Jack added helpfully.

“No major injuries,” He continued, ignoring the interruption. “But I don’t like being trapped under a half-ton of rubble with more tin cans on the loose above us.”

“Understood. I’ve got your location. You’re close and we’re on our way. Try not to get too comfortable, boys. We’ll have you out in no time.”

Gabriel let out a heavy sigh, which he instantly regretted as his ribs protested. “Well, help’s on the way.”

“That’s a relief.” Jack dropped his head back and let his eyes close, taking a few deep, calming breaths.

Gabriel could feel each breath intimately against his own chest, the warmth of Jack’s form beneath him, their legs tangled together. The ache in his heart was suddenly more painful than the broken ribs. They were so close. His face was just inches away from that sculpted neck. _God,_ Jack was beautiful, even covered in dirt, sweat, and blood. If only he could—

_Goddammit, no. Not here, not now. Get your shit together, Gabe._

“You doing alright, Jack?” he asked, more to distract himself than anything else. “Not claustrophobic, are you?”

“Nah,” Jack replied, eyes half-opening. “Not in particular, anyway. Just trying not to think about suffocating alone down here.”

“You’re not alone, Jackie,” Gabriel said. The gentleness of his voice surprised him. “I’ve got you.”

A soft expression passed over Jack’s face. Gabriel looked away, cursing himself for saying too much. A moment passed between them in silence, then two, until the silence became deafening. Just when he thought he was going to shatter under the pressure of unspoken words, he felt an arm wrap around his waist.

“I’ve got you, too,” Jack said quietly. “And you might as well settle in. We may be here for a while.”

Gabriel hesitated only a moment before relaxing against Jack and resting his head on his shoulder. He let out a long breath.

“There, was that so hard?” Jack asked, a note of amusement in his voice.

“It will be, if I have to keep smelling your shitty cologne for the next hour,” Gabriel snapped back, but he buried his face in Jack’s neck nonetheless.

Jack laughed, deep and gravelly, and the sound coiled pleasantly in Gabriel’s gut like warm smoke. “You know, if I was going to suffocate under a building, there’s no one else I would rather be with.”

“We’re not going to suffocate, dumbass,” Gabriel grumbled. “The team’s going to dig us out.”

Something scrabbled in the rubble above them. It sounded almost like a rat, except for the distinct scratch of metal on concrete.

“See?” he said, feeling inexplicably safe in Jack’s arms, despite being trapped under two tons of collapsed building. “That’ll be one of Torb’s seeker drones, coming to—”

Jack’s arm tightened around his waist. “Gabe, look out!”

White-hot pain burned across Gabriel’s back, melting through his body armor and searing through his flesh. A raw, harsh scream ripped itself out of his throat. Jack snapped his sidearm out of its holster and fired two shots, the sound deafening in such confined quarters and the crumpled remains of a Slicer dropped beside them.

Jack dropped the pistol to grab Gabriel’s shoulders. “Gabe!”

“Shit,” Gabriel growled, gritting his teeth against the pain.

The white-hot pinpoint of fire had stopped when Jack killed the Slicer, but a raw, burning heat still lingered. Goddamn lasers. Why didn’t they have body armor that protected against lasers? His fingers slowly closed around Jack’s armored chest plate and he clung to him, clenching his watering eyes shut. 

“Fuck, that hurts…”

“How bad is it?” Jack asked, his rough voice rising with worry as he looked over Gabriel’s shoulder to inspect the wound.

“H-hell if I know,” Gabriel snarled. 

His whole body tensed and he tried to focus on anything except the agony rolling across his back, but the pain was growing, seeming to consume the entirety of his awareness. How deep had the beam gone? Through his back? His spine? Into his chest? His whole torso was on fire and he could focus on nothing else. This would be a hell of a lot easier to deal with if he would just pass out. His body seemed to have had the same thought and he felt himself growing weaker, his grip on Jack loosening. He let out a harsh, ragged breath.

“Gabe? Gabe, talk to me!” Jack’s calloused hands cradled Gabriel’s face and lifted his head to meet his gaze.

“Think…think I’m checking out here, Jackie,” Gabriel wheezed. 

Somehow, talking was becoming harder. Everything was becoming harder. God, had he lost his lungs? He tried to focus on breathing, on talking, on Jack, but nothing seemed to work. Son of a bitch. What a shitty way to die.

“Gabe? No, Gabe, concentrate! Come on, stay with me!”

Gabriel knew Jack was shouting, but his voice sounded hazy and far away. The world was unfocused and muddy, even within his own head, as the darkness rose up to claim him. Hell, it was now or never.

“…love you, Jack.”

“What? Gabe? Gabe!”

Gabriel let out a soft sigh and let himself fall away to where nothing hurt anymore.

  


* * *

  


The light was blinding, but Gabriel managed to crack his eyes open with a groan. Fluorescent lights, beige walls, the hum of equipment, and that shitty antiseptic smell filled his senses. Hospital. He was in a hospital. Huh. He wasn’t dead. That was a genuine surprise. Nice.

A large, calloused hand closed around his, and he felt lips pressed tenderly to his knuckles.

“I love you, too.” The lips curled into a smile against his skin. “Jackass.”

Gabriel smiled and let his eyes fall closed. 

“Damn right.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you'd like, and feel free to hit me up at my [Tumblr](http://dabbledrabbleprose.tumblr.com) or my [Pillowfort!](https://www.pillowfort.io/SadinaSaphrite)


End file.
